Keller Marine and RV Show in Florida Sees Robust Attendance – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
CLEARWATER, Fla. – More than 150 vendors gathered Monday and Tuesday for the 2024 Keller Marine and RV East Coast Show at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort.
And by all accounts, the vibe at the show – which happened to coincide with a divisive election day – was positive.
“I am really, really excited about the people here,” said Lori Morrow, Keller co-owner and marketing director. “The people are very upbeat. I have heard nothing but positive comments. No negative. Which is really uplifting to me as well.”
She noted that influencers Kevin and Patrice McCabe of the Discovery Channel TV show “RV There Yet” were on hand to talk about the show and present a planogram of products.
“Whoever buys the most of those products at this show will be the one that will get a seminar done at their show. So people are excited about that,” she said.
Further, the McCabes’ appearance helps connect with the generation of RVers.
“I’ve talked to several different dealers about, will that help us reach out to the younger consumer?” she said. “Because I know a lot of these younger people love to watch those type of TV shows, and I think it’ll make the lifestyle attractive to them because if you don’t know much about it, if you watched people RVing, it kind of teaches you a little bit about it. So I’m excited about that.”
The show also featured seminars on new Furrion air conditioners, products from SoftStart and other vendors which were well received by show-goers.
The show rotates annually between Florida and Pennsylvania, giving all Keller customers the opportunity to check out the latest and greatest from vendors.
And Mike Keller, company president, made a point to stress just how important those vendors are to Keller Marine and RV.
“One of the things that I would want to make sure we communicate is that we really are about supporting vendors,” he said. “We are not a private label company. We don’t go overseas and take the brands of our vendors – and we could. We know where the factories are in China. We know where most of the stuff is built. But it’s just not our M.O. to take business like that because we feel these are our partners in this building right here. And it’s cool in an industry when it tightens up to watch, you either hang together or you hang separately. And I feel these guys are really hanging with us. And this show, from a dealer’s perspective as well as from the vendor’s perspective, it’s really about that – hanging together.”
Mike Hesse, CEO and chairman of Hesse Enterprises, the parent company of hitches and towing manufacturer Blue Ox, was pleased with the show.
“Mike (Keller) does a fantastic job with everything,” Hesse said. “We’ve seen a lot of major gains this year with new customers coming on board with Blue Ox products. So this is our second distributor show of the season. We’ve had very similar results so far and they’ve both have been really honestly fantastic.”
But Blue Ox’s show traffic has been more a function of a gain in market share as opposed to a turnaround in the market, Hesse explained.
“Blue Ox is a little different right now because we are in the process of capturing a lot of market share. So our growth is through new acquisitions, just having more customers,” he said. “I would argue that the industry hasn’t seen a bottoming out effect yet. However, we are close. So we’re getting closer. I’m calling Q1 of next year the bottom before we start moving higher.”
Keller explained a new technology that is currently in beta testing on the Keller Marine and RV website.
Called “K-Market,” it allows Keller customers to upload products they have in inventory that they want to sell.
“Technology-wise, what we’ve done is we’ve started a product for our dealers – a thing called K-Market – which is where the dealer can now list his own stuff,” Keller said. “He can show what he has available and he can search other dealers based on OEM and aftermarket. So, we’re beta launching this right now. The program’s written, but we’re logistically working through a small test market to try this concept. All the dealers we talk to about it are really excited. Because what happens is one dealer’s junk is another dealer’s treasure. We’re trying to help them move their obsolete parts or the slow-moving OEM parts as well as the stuff they buy from us.”
Keller Marine and RV started in 1957 by Mike and Lori’s father in the marine sector. Their father was building boats and suggested that his son get into the distribution business, Lori explained.
“So that’s how we started. And then in around the mid ’70s, our father was distributing Starcraft boats and then he got into Starcraft campers, and that’s what led him into campers. People started looking for the parts. So that’s how we got into the RV parts side of the business,” she said.
The company currently employs approximately 70 people in two warehouses – one in Thonotosassa, Fla., and another in Port Trevorton, Penn. The company handles up to 48,000 SKUs from brands that represent a Who’s Who of the marine and RV sectors.
The company’s growth and success, Mike Keller believes, flows from a client philosophy which was on display at the show.
“I believe as independent people in this business, it’s so important that we come together in a venue like this where we can just talk and see product, but more importantly, be on the same team,” he said. “It’s not an easy market right now, so if you’re not hanging together – as I said earlier – you’re hanging separately. I feel good about the energy. I feel good about the people being here. And I feel good energy on the vendor side as well.
“Because you see our labels out there. Those are vendors in this industry for a long time and their name means something to us. And we’re not out here saying, ‘OK, let’s take a product that sells really well for us and put a Keller name on it and buy it cheaper somewhere else’ like Amazon does. We’re about helping build their brands and being a part of that. And I think that’s really a huge deal.”
